Pizy

Don't tell me Rüdiger is injured. We'll need him against Barca again or Cahill will get humiliated. Wonder what must be going through Morata's head right about now. Came here to play under a manager who now doesn't fancy him. Know he's been in awful form, but it must be embarrassing for him to see a 32 year old Giroud favored now.

United look a lot like us under Mou in his second spell. Rock solid at the back, a nearly impenetrable shield just in front of them, not always exciting but show flourishes of quality in attack.

Matic has been a monster against both ourselves and against Liverpool here. Looks as good as he did early in the season after a bit of a dip.

I see the supposed bargain we all thought we were getting in Barkley is going well. Thought he was just getting over his recent injury and it now sounds like he's out again? Wasn't he just back training last week?

Has Harry Kane had a touch in the last 30 minutes?

As I was saying...

Spuds are completely manhandling Juve. Just like they did much of the first leg. Not really being troubled at all. As a team, they're miles better than us at this moment in time. Every player knows precisely what to do at all times, they press and win the ball back constantly. Just a well oiled machine.

Much as I've disagreed with a lot of your posts in recent months, I have to admit that you're right here. It must be especially embarrassing for these pedigreed, world class talents in our team set up in such a way. Watching City literally humiliate us and take the piss as if we are a lower division side. Why on Earth would Hazard return next season when he could instead go and play in a star studded super team? Play in the CL or go to Azberibongistan in the Europa League? For me we don't have a massive gap in terms of talent with City and especially not with Liverpool and Spuds. What we have is a massive gap in terms of mentality and setup. All of our rivals actually setup like big clubs and have that mentality where they go into every game with the intention to attack. We don't.

When Conte goes, we need to employ someone who wants his team to take initiative and be the bully. Someone who is about attacking and asserting dominance. No more rigid structure and setting up to contain first and hoping for chances here and there. I've loved Conte and his passion but it's clear he's lost it at Chelsea. I think if he's given a better chance to succeed at a more ambitious club he'll be back at the top in no time. Maybe PSG or Milan.

Clubs like United, Spuds, and Liverpool can have plenty to look forward to despite coming well short of a title challenge. All 3 are building exciting projects and are going in the right direction. We have nothing, nothing to be excited about in the immediete future.

If City are really up for this and feel like it, this could be a bloodbath. They barely got out of cruise mode a couple days ago and smacked Arsenal who we couldn't even beat.

Imagine wasting my time watching a bunch of spoiled, rich athletes who can barely manage to show they really care. If they do care they'll win tomorrow no matter what it takes. If they don't, why bother making myself miserable watching a bunch of pointless matches? I don't want to watch a bunch of players who care less about the Chelsea shirt than I do.

If we concede early and this goes the way it likely will (City having 80% possession and us barely threatening their goal at all) I'm just turining it off. Not sitting there wasting my time watching. I'll tune in to the Barca match in hopes of a 1 in a million miracle but if we go out of the CL there I'm done for the season.

Top 4 is gone. I've already accepted it. Our best player and our manager will both be gone this summer as well. Our keeper who would likely go for a world record price for his position normally will have to be sold for peanuts because he's in the final year of his contract. Not really much to get excited about at the moment for us Chelsea fans. Only two options for us this summer. Either Roman goes absolutely mental and buys us out of this mess or we appoint the perfect new manager and knock it our of the park with all of our new signings (that will all be bought from the second or third tier of the market). Without CL football we won't be competing with City or United for any top, top players and we knew that. But even Spuds and Liverpool will have bigger pull than us now. And good luck with our penny pinching board in a World Cup summer where the price for anyone performing well will skyrocket even more in an already mad market. Then on top of our rivals all getting even stronger (while we lose 2 of our best players) we'll have the slog of the Europa League to contend with. Fuck, this shit is depressing.

Completely disagree. Our striker has to be powerful and be able to hold the ball up under Conte. Firmino is the opposite sort of forward we'd use.

Firmino is a solid player but nothing special. Benefits from playing in the team an system he does. I think any decent forward would thrive in that role. Wouldn't have him here as a starter. Can is very inconsistent. Looks great one match and then Ive regularly seen Liverpool fans saying they'll be glad to see the back of him this summer.

I'm seriously debating within my head whether or not I'll even watch this. Our players have so little bottle that I wouldn't be surprised if we do just what Arse did against them last night. Crumble like pussies. This weekend will very likely be the final nail in our top 4 chances. Seeing Liverpool above us and finishing in the top 4 would hurt the most because I refuse to believe they are a better team than us. They have only 1 player who would walk straight into our best XI. One! Van Dijk, maybe, but I'm not even sure he's better than Rüdiger. Man for man we are better than they are all over the pitch and they have a terrible defense and mediocre midfield. Yet because of the insane production of Salah + Firmino and their attacking style they'll finish above us.

Imagine what it must be like to be a City fan right now. Seeing your team absolutely flying, knowing you're waltzing to the title, have an amazing shot at the CL, have probably the best manager in the world, and most of your best players are still very young. With infinite money to constantly replenish their squad when needed, they are set up to dominate European football for a while. Must be so nice to support a club with massive ambition. I miss when we did.

City are fucking insane, man. Have to be favorites for the CL. They're just brilliant.

I'd miss Courtois the keeper because when he's good he's very good. I won't miss Courtois the person. In fact, I'd be glad to see the back of him so long as we get a quality replacement. Hazard must be offered the moon and the stars in order to convince him to stay. Courtois can fuck off for all I care.

Much as I love Conte and wish he could stay for a few more years and build something, I think it's pretty clear that he'll see out the season and then walk. He's got far too much professional pride to just give up now, but it's clear there's something missing that he had last season. Gives off the impression that he's just waiting for it all to be over with so he can go to a club that suits his methods more. Really sucks because I don't trust the club to appoint the right man to replace him. It'll probably be the clubs biggest transfer window in years and the favorite to come in is the unproven Luis Enrique. Hazard ain't sticking around and wasting another of his prime years playing in the Europa League. So imagine a new managers task of taking over for yet another rebuild without our best player while doing so when the other top clubs are getting stronger and stronger. I truly fear for us.

The biggest thing all 4 sides above us have that we don't this season is fear factor. City and Liverpool play highly aggressive, extremely effective attacking football that just blows everyone away. Spuds press everyone like mad and have the best forward in the country to constantly pull them through. Small clubs simply cannot handle high pressing like Liverpool and Spuds do. As average as United are they're still the biggest club in the country and instll fear in most opponents. Every single team that we come up against big or small fancies it. Burnley, Watford, Palace, Bournemouth, etc come up against Chelsea and think "we can get after them and get something here." That's insane considering we're the fucking champions. This is why, when Conte inevitably walks at the end of the season, we need to appoint an attack minded manager. We can sacrifice some defensive solidity for a more aggressive, attacking brand of football. As Liverpool and City are proving (and even the best sides in Europe can't defend well) simply being unstoppable going forward is enough.

What's all the more crushing about this situation is that we were comfortably above Liverpool and Spuds not long ago and right on the heels of United. I seriously almost discounted Spuds because they were so far behind us and looking average. Now all 3 of those sides will be out of sight by the end of the next matchweek.

From champions comfortably to a finish outside the top 4 the next season. Again. This game was lost for a number of reasons. Hazard and Willian were dead on their feet after a brilliant first half from each of them. Kante and DD were solid in the first half but Matic singlehandedly dominated the entire midfield in the second half. And finall, and most infuriatingly, Morata was completely useless once more. He looks a completely different player than he did when he was scoring for fun. If an opponent is physical with him he wilts like a dying flower. Thi is the worst I've felt about Chelsea in a while. A club like United can easily afford and deal with a season outside of the top 4 because they can buy themselves out of everything. It's going to be disastrous for us. Losing our best players and having to buy quality in a World Cup summer. We may actually pull a Liverpool and be on the outside looking in for a while. Depressing.

Dominate the first half and then just let them dominate the second. No top 4 next season. No more Hazard, no more Courtois. Just fuck off.